14KT: '14KillaTape' (Beat Tape)

There is a common bond running throughout some of the stronger material we have run on here from the likes of Aloe Blacc, Danny Brown, Elzhi, and Magestik Legend. Care to guess what it is? I'll give you a minute...OK, that's enough. The link between them all, and many other skilled MCs, is Detroit producer 14KT, whose style blurs the line between melodic soul and crunchy boom-bap. He injects both sounds into his dusty, sample-flipping approach while also taking time to mess with a touch of psychedelia.

This can be heard especially on his latest project, the free14KillaTape, which features 14 new instrumentals from the producer. He wisely keeps most of them at less than two minutes. But when he does tread over that marker, he is at his most experimental, like on the head-spinning, acid-tripping "U Tryin To Catch The Beat (3D Chop Ish)." Otherwise, he's teasing you with samples, which he then proceeds to chop the hell out of while blending in synths and some of the best drums you have heard in a minute.